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<blockquote data-quote="Windjammer" data-source="post: 5605808" data-attributes="member: 60075">Fascinating. I think one prediction can be safely made about 5E: whatever it is, whenever it's out, its primary design goal will to be recognisably D&amp;D. To as many people as possible. 4E went the other way. The 4E design team too probed how far they could go in making a good game without going too far into the area of 'that's not D&amp;D anymore' (see Races&amp;Classes designer diaries). But their point was that on occasion they were happy to sacrifice 'sacred cows', both mechanically and story-wise (something Mearls' L&amp;L columns haven't even touched on*), if it made for a better game. That's exactly what they went for: produce a mechanically superior game, even if it went against D&amp;D's history, mechanically and otherwise.** This sort of trade off will be anathema to 5E. 5E would rather harvest recognisability - because that translates into recognition and acceptance - than a superior game engine. Mind you, these two things need not always pull in opposite directions; it's just when they do, you got to make up your mind where your priorities are. This suggested inversion of priorities would also fit with making the D&amp;D fanbase less divided a primary goal, something close to the surface in Mearls' first Enworld posting when being made D&amp;D Group Manager in 2010:That whole <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/276807-mearls-new-manager-d-d.html#post5183377" target="_blank">post</a> is worth rereading. Replace his references to 2E and 3E with (respectively) 4E and 5E, and you got the perfect picture of the reclaimed fanboys they're shooting for.* What if we need the Great Wheel, five types of humanoids as low level foes, and so on for it to be D&amp;D? What if D&amp;D today, as opposed to in 1976, is a cultural icon with a history, and that you better not ditch 90% of that history in revamping the game for a contemporary audience?** Here's how Mearls&nbsp; <a href="http://mearls.livejournal.com/155418.html" target="_blank">describes</a> the mood&nbsp; at WotC R&amp;D when 4E PHB 1 hit the shelves in June 2008:</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Windjammer, post: 5605808, member: 60075"] Fascinating. I think one prediction can be safely made about 5E: whatever it is, whenever it's out, its primary design goal will to be recognisably D&D. To as many people as possible. 4E went the other way. The 4E design team too probed how far they could go in making a good game without going too far into the area of 'that's not D&D anymore' (see Races&Classes designer diaries). But their point was that on occasion they were happy to sacrifice 'sacred cows', both mechanically and story-wise (something Mearls' L&L columns haven't even [I]touched [/I]on*), if it made for a better game. That's exactly what they went for: produce a mechanically superior game, even if it went against D&D's history, mechanically and otherwise.** This sort of trade off will be anathema to 5E. 5E would rather harvest recognisability - because that translates into recognition and acceptance - than a superior game engine. [U]Mind you, these two things need not always pull in opposite directions; it's just when they do, you got to make up your mind where your priorities are. [/U] This suggested inversion of priorities would also fit with [I]making the D&D fanbase less divided a primary goal[/I], something close to the surface in Mearls' first Enworld posting when being made D&D Group Manager in 2010: That whole [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/276807-mearls-new-manager-d-d.html#post5183377"]post[/URL] is worth rereading. Replace his references to 2E and 3E with (respectively) 4E and 5E, and you got the perfect picture of the reclaimed fanboys they're shooting for. [B]*[/B] What if we need the Great Wheel, five types of humanoids as low level foes, and so on for it to be D&D? What if D&D today, as opposed to in 1976, is a cultural icon with a [I]history[/I], and that you better not ditch 90% of that history in revamping the game for a contemporary audience? [B]**[/B] Here's how Mearls [URL="http://mearls.livejournal.com/155418.html"]describes[/URL] the mood at WotC R&D when 4E PHB 1 hit the shelves in June 2008: [/QUOTE]

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